Exult Documentation
last changed: 14 April 2016(GMT)
The latest version of this document can be found at http://exult.sourceforge.net/docs.php
1. Introduction
1.1. Exult Version
1.2. What is Exult?
1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima 7
2. Configurations
2.1. Installation
2.2. Location of exult.cfg
2.3. Settings in exult.cfg
2.4. Path-Settings
2.5. Path-Settings for Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and NT4.0
2.6. Path-Settings for Windows ME, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7
2.7. Path-Settings for Mac OS X
2.8. Path-Settings for *nix based systems
2.9. Advanced Configuration: Using both the original and the Add-Ons
2.10. Command line options
2.11. Error Log
3. Audio
3.1. Music
3.2. MIDI Music
3.3. Abilities and limitations of the MIDI music engine
3.4. Windows MIDI Mapper
3.5. OS X CoreMidi device ID
3.6. Digital Music
3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects
3.8. All-in-One Audio Data pack and installers
3.9. Installation of the digital music packs
3.10. Installation of the digital wave sound effects
3.11. Speech
3.12. Turn off Audio
3.13. Linux and Audio
4. Video
4.1. Resolution
4.2. Fill modes
4.3. Higher resolution is cheating
4.4. Scaler
5. Movement and Keys
5.1. Movement
5.2. Keyboard commands
5.3. Cheat keys
5.4. Map Editing keys
6. ShortcutBar, Notebook and Screenshots
6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions
6.2. Using the Notebook
6.3. The automatic Notebook
6.4. Screenshots
7. Exult Setup and Game Menu
7.1. Access to the Exult Setup and Game menu
7.2. Load/Save Game
7.3. Video Options
7.4. Audio Options
7.5. Gameplay Options
7.6. Misc Options
7.7. Quit
8. Mods and Patches
8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches
8.2. Installing Mods
8.3. Installing Patches
8.4. Adapting the location of Mods and Patches
8.5. Where to find the savegames of modded games
8.6. Exchanging Savegames between original games and Mods
9. iOS Guide
9.1. The port to iOS
9.2. Installing Exult on your iPhone/iPad
9.3. Installing the games on your iPhone/iPad
9.4. Installing sfx and digital music
9.5. iOS controls
9.6. Additional iOS settings
10. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult
10.1. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI on Windows
10.2. Installing the floppy disks of the Add-Ons FoV/SS on Windows
10.3. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI using DOSBox
10.4. Installing the floppy disks of the Add-Ons FoV/SS using DOSBox
10.5. Manual installation of the BG floppy disks
10.6. Manual installation of the SI floppy disks
10.7. Installing the CD-ROM versions of Ultima VII
10.8. Fixing permissions of Ultima Collection on *nix systems
10.9. Using the version for Windows from GOG.com
10.10. Using the version for OS X from GOG.com
11. Credits and Contact
11.1. Thanks
11.2. Contacting us
12. Changes to the Documentation
12.1. - 14 April 2016
12.2. - 17 March 2016
12.3. - 13 March 2016
12.4. - 19 March 2015
12.5. - 09 May 2014
12.6. - 19 December 2013
12.7. - 21 November 2013
12.8. - 11 February 2013
12.9. - 15 January 2013
12.10. - 01 January 2013
12.11. - 16 December 2012
12.12. - 14 November 2012
12.13. - 28 October 2012
12.14. - 01 December 2011
12.15. - 16 March 2011
12.16. - 19 February 2011
12.17. - 24 January 2011
12.18. - 23 January 2011
12.19. - 13 October 2010
12.20. - 30 August 2010
12.21. - 25 August 2010
12.22. - 15 August 2010
12.23. - 28 April 2010
12.24. - 11 March 2010
12.25. - 10 March 2010
12.26. - 08 March 2010
12.27. - 16 July 2009
12.28. - 03 June 2009
12.29. - 20 May 2009
12.30. - 19 May 2009
12.31. - 18 May 2009
12.32. - 28 April 2009
12.33. - 21 October 2007
12.34. - 08 April 2006
12.35. - 14 March 2005
12.36. - 14 August 2004
12.37. - 23 May 2004
12.38. - 11 February 2004
12.39. - 12 December 2003
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1. Introduction
1.1. Exult Version
This documentation is for the 1.5.0 Git version of Exult. If you have another Exult version, its documentation can be found where you installed the release.
1.2. What is Exult?
Ultima 7, an RPG from the early 1990's, still has a huge following. But, being a DOS game with a very nonstandard memory manager, it is difficult to run it on the latest computers. Exult is a project to create an Ultima 7 game engine that runs on modern operating systems, capable of using the data and graphics files that come with the game.
Exult is written in C++ and runs on, at least, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows using the SDL library to make porting to other platforms relatively easy. The current version supports all of "Ultima 7: The Black Gate" and "Ultima 7 part 2: The Serpent Isle", allowing you to finish both games. This is only possible due to the work done by other fans who have decoded the various Ultima 7 data files, especially Gary Thompson, Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Schonberg, and Wouter Dijkslag.
Exult aims to let those people who own Ultima 7 (copyright 1993) play the game on modern hardware, in as close to (or perhaps even surpassing) its original splendor as is possible. You need to own "Ultima 7: The Black Gate" and/or "Ultima 7: Serpent Isle" and optionally the add-ons (not required to run) in order to use Exult, and we encourage you to buy a legal copy.
1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima 7
We are using many terms in this documentation, the FAQ and other documentation files that people may have difficulties to understand. Here we will try to give some explanations.
* BG, SI, FoV or SS: we refer to "Ultima 7: The Black Gate" as BG and to "Ultima 7: Serpent Isle" as SI. The add-ons "Forge of Virtue" and "Silver Seed" are called FoV and SS.
* eggs: these are trip-wires that can cause monsters to spawn, execute scripts, play music, change weather, trigger traps or teleport when you get near them.
* flex files: also known as flexes, these are used by the original to store the data files. Also when you choose to not use compressed save games (see save_compression_level in 2.3.) our save games are also "flexed".
* gumps: the windows used in the game interface for containers, characters, menus, etc..
* paperdoll: when pressing 'i' you get the inventory display. It's the picture of your characters body (or the bodies of your party members) onto which you can drag all kinds of equipment. The way this is displayed in SI is what we call paperdoll. We integrated this for BG as well. (see FAQ.txt).
* shapes: shape files are the format used for storage of all graphics elements (from UI buttons to terrain features) of the games Exult supports. Shapes may contain one or more frames (a frame is a single image).
* snapshot: see FAQ.txt. Please note that our documentation usually refers to the latest snapshot.
* usecode: that's the scripting language that drives all of U7 (conversations, objects...).
* Exult data folder: that's the folder where Exult stores its data files (exult.flx, exult_bg.flx and exult_si.flx).
* gamename name of games that are set in exult.cfg's , Exult knows by default the gamenames blackgate, forgeofvirtue, serpentisle and silverseed
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2. Configurations
2.1. Installation
* First you need to get Ultima 7. Either you own it already, or you buy it somewhere.
* You need an installed version of Ultima 7 to run Exult with. At 10. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult we have a guide on how to install the original games.
* Copy the installed Ultima7 folder to an appropriate folder
* Download Exult from our download section and install it. The Windows version comes with an installer that asks for the location of both BG and SI. If you entered the correct location the next two steps are not necessary.
* Now run exult (exult.exe on Windows) and quit it immediately.
* Edit the configuration file with a text editor (e.g. on Windows use Notepad) and enter the correct paths for the game folders - see 2.3. for details
* Run exult and enjoy the game :-)
Word of advice: Don't mix the files from BG and SI.
Note: If you run Exult on an original Ultima7 game which you're actually in the middle of playing, your game will be overwritten. Since Exult's files have a different format, there is no way to convert those original save games.
2.2. Location of exult.cfg
Exult stores its setting in the file exult.cfg. The location of the file varies depending on the Operating System and in the case of Windows OS it also depends on the version of Windows.
* On UNIX systems you can expect to find it in $HOME/.exult.cfg
* Mac OS X saves it to ~/Library/Preferences/exult.cfg
* Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and NT4.0 save the exult.cfg to the folder where you installed Exult to (by default C:\Program Files\Exult)
* Windows ME saves exult.cfg to C:\Windows\Application Data\Exult
* Windows 2000 and XP save exult.cfg to LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult, which translates to C:\Documents and Settings\YourUsername\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult for an English version of Windows
* Windows Vista and Windows 7 also save exult.cfg to LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult, but on these this translates to "C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Exult"
* On Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 you can quickly access this folder by executing "shell:Local AppData\Exult" in the "Run" entry of the Startmenu (or the "Run or Search" entry of the Windows Vista and 7 Startmenu)
2.3. Settings in exult.cfg
Most of the options in Exult can be changed from the Setup menu when you run Exult or via the Game Options menu. Exult stores these changes in a configuration file. Except for changing paths to the games you shouldn't need to edit the file. Very few options need manual editing.
Note: the settings in exult.cfg are the same on all operating systems (except when explicitly stated below).
The file uses a simple hierarchical XML-like syntax, which should be simple to understand and modify. Take care though. Handling of syntax errors in this file is not well tested.
The file looks like this (do not copy the **and following - these are my remarks), options you can only change manually are colored in purple.
Note: yes means enabled, no means disabled
1
**save games are now compressed as zip files. 0 disables compression,
1 enables it, 2 compresses even a bit better. Default is 1.
data
**this is where Exult stores its data files that are needed to run (e.g. exult???.flx files)
data/music
**optional. Location of digital music. See also 3.6.
path_to/blackgate
**path to the BG game. See 2.4. before changing it.
optional_path
**optional. Default is the same as , change to whatever you like.
Also see 2.4. before changing it.
path_to/blackgate/static
**optional. See 2.4. before changing it.
optional_path/gamedat
**optional. See 2.4. before changing it.
(default)
**configure custom key bindings or leave the (default)
- see 5.2.
(default)
**set path to a custom autonotes file or leave the (default)
- see 6.3.
jmsfx.flx
**optional setting see 3.7. for configuration
optional_path/mods
**optional. See 8.4.
optional_path/patch
**optional. See 8.4.
path_to/serpentisle
**path to the SI game. See 2.4. before changing it.
optional_path
**optional. Default is the same as , change to whatever you like.
Also see 2.4. before changing it.
path_to/serpentisle/static
**optional. See 2.4. before changing it.
optional_path/gamedat
**optional. See 2.4. before changing it.
(default)
**configure custom key bindings or leave the (default)
- see 5.2.
(default)
**set path to a custom autonotes file or leave the (default)
- see 6.3.
jmsisfx.flx
**optional setting see 3.7. for configuration
optional_path/mods
**optional. See 8.4.
optional_path/patch
**optional. See 8.4.
-1
**activates the status faces and the position on the screen.
-1 disable,0 left, 1 middle, 2 right.
-1
**with this enabled all the text in the games have a colored background
to improve readability. 0 gives a solid light gray, 1 dark purple,
2 bright yellow, 3 light blue, 4 dark green, 5 dark red, 6 purple,
7 orange, 8 light gray, 9 green, 10 yellow, 11 pale blue, 12 dark green,
13 red, 14 bright white, 15 dark gray, 16 white. -1 disables this.
no
**enables faster cursor movement in full screen mode.
yes
**enables using of the middle mouse button.
no
no
double
**right-clicking lets the Avatar walk automatically
to where you clicked. it defaults to double click but
you can opt for a single click or disable it.
no
**when in cheat mode allow to scroll the gameview with the mouse-
yes
**yes doesn't pause the game when gumps are shown.
yes
**enable/disable cheats
no
**yes enables SI style paperdolls in BG.
0
**0/25/50/75/100 percentage of how smooth the game scrolls when the avatar
moves. 0 disables smooth scrolling and uses the "jerky" scrolling of the
original game.
no
**this skips the scripted first scene in BG and SI during which you can't move.
no
**this skips the splash screen, the intro before you get to the
game menu. Disabling it brings you straight to the game menu.
yes
**yes forces the party to walk in a formation similar to the original game.
See FAQ.txt in the FAQ.
8
**Controls how far the Avatar will move before Exult recalculates the
Avatar's and the party's movement. Bigger # avoids jerkiness, but may cause other
problems.
no
**Dropping stacks of items will drop the whole stack without asking how many when enabled.
Hold 'Ctrl' while dropping to split the stack.
no
**Automatically fill the notebook with entries when game flags are set.
See 6.3.
0
**0 is default, negative values make combat easier, positive makes it
harder. It affects the chance of a hit, and the HP's lost if a hit occurs.
Ranges from -3 to 3 (easiest to hardest).
original
**original or keypause. On keypause the game pauses when you hit space
so you can make changes in combat.
no
**no is default. With yes you see the hit points of NPCs
in brackets after their name.
normal
**with normal the Avatar behaves as in the original game. When he is charmed
he will be highlighted as charmed and the status icon will show but you can control him as usual.
"hard" will neither allow the player to control the Avatar nor access his inventory.
yes
**enable/disable all audio - this takes precedence over the
other audio settings. (You can change this in game via
'Esc' - the setting is saved.)
no
**enable/disable the pausing of SFX and digital music when the
game pauses (e.g. not the focused window). MIDI music is currently not paused.
22050
**set the sample rate of Exult. Default is 22050, Windows CE defaults to 11025.
yes
**enable/disable stereo sound. Windows CE is set to disabled.
yes
**enable/disable sound effects. (You can change this in game via
'Esc' - the setting is saved.)
yes
**enable/disable speech. (You can change this in game via
'Esc' - the setting is saved.)
yes
**enable/disable ALL Music (You can change this in game via
'Esc' - the setting is saved.)
no
**use pre-recorded ogg files for music - see 3.1.
default
**choose your music driver between default, MT32Emu, Fluidsynth, FMOPL,
TiMidity, Windows, Amiga, Forked, KMIDI, alsa, CoreAudio,
CoreMidi, UnixSeqDevice.
See 3.1. for details.
gm
**see 3.2.
yes
**No disables music looping. See 7.4.
no
**alters the way MIDI is played.
0
**how much the MIDI is altered. Value can be 0-127.
no
**alters the way MIDI is played.
0
**how much the MIDI is altered. Value can be 0-127.
no
**when enabled it preloads the entire timbre bank on starting
up Exult with a penalty on start up time.
yes
**only preloads needed timbres and patches when a song gets
loaded.
-1
**choose the Windows MIDI Device. See 3.4.
path
**path to the sound font you want to use for CoreAudio on OS X.
CoreAudio uses the system sound font by default.
path
**select the CoreMidi device ID on OS X.
You need to start Exult from Terminal.app to see the IDs when you select CoreMidi as Midi driver.
See 3.5..
65:0
**use this to change the ALSA port when you have chosen alsa as your driver
(format: XX:YY).
/dev/sequencer
**the device to be used when you have chosen the driver UnixSeqDevice
path
**path to the sound font that will be used to render the MIDI music
when Fluidsynth is chosen as driver.
path
**support for FluidSynth soundfont stack, add multiple soundfonts
(N = 0 to 9). See 3.2..
1.000000
**set volume (kind of at least, best don't change)
yes
**yes means that fullscreen and windowed mode share the same
video settings.
no
**do you want to play full screen?
2xSaI
**choose different scalers here - see 4.4. - applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
2
**2 enables / 1 disables scaling, some scalers support higher values.
See 4.4. - applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
640
**here you choose the resolution of the Exult window.
The default will be the lowest resolution that your system supports.
Applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
480
320
**here you choose at what resolution you run the games in the
Exult window. 320x200 is the resolution of the original.
0x0 means that Exult will determine the best way to match
game resolution to Exult resolution - applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
200
0
**if game resolution doesn't match Exult resolution
you have borders around the game res. With these you can
change the black default border color - applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
0
0
Centre
**Possible options are Fill, Fit, Aspect Correct Fit, Centre and Aspect Correct Centre.
Please see 4.2. for more information about these options.
Applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
Bilinear
**Chose between Point and Bilinear.
Please see 4.2. for more information about this - applies to fullscreen if video settings are not shared.
2xSaI
2
640
240
320
200
Centre
Bilinear
Please see 4.2. for more information about this.
0
**force output bpp. Valid values are 0 (for any), 8, 16 or 32.
If set to 8 most scalers will not work and will display as the
fallback point scaler.
no
**"no" enables fading between different menu points
10
**Speed setting. Might help when the game seems too slow or too fast.
The in game menu shows this setting in the Gameplay menu.
1
**set gamma levels to adjust brightness, same as +/- in game
1
1
no
**options are yes/translucent (will not be translucent if not on
map, default on iOS)
black
**outline around shortcutbar buttons only if the bar is on the map.
Options are: no, green, white, yellow, blue, red, purple, black (default).
yes
**hides ShortcutBar buttons the party doesn't have.
no shows those buttons greyed out.
no
**options are yes/no/verbose. This is used to trace the
executed Usecode. (You shouldn't need this unless you are a programmer.)
no
**options are yes/no. Used to trace intrinsics.
(You shouldn't need this unless you are a programmer.)
no
**options are yes/no. If enabled, show combat messages.
2.4. Path-Settings
The way Exult generates default paths (for gamedat, savegames, mods, patches) has changed since Version 1.2. It will not write these paths to exult.cfg but use them automatically. The location where Exult expects those, and if needed, will create those folders is similarly depending on the Operating System as the location of exult.cfg (see 2.2. Location of exult.cfg). If you were to override these paths you would need to change the following tags (you can substitute gamename with the "known games" - see 1.3.):
data
path_to/gamename
path_to/gamename/static
optional_path
optional_path/gamedat
path_to/gamename/mods
path_to/gamename/patch
But normally you don't need to. On starting up, Exult will first read which games are available as configured in exult.cfg. Then it will use the setting and assume that is /static. For , , and Exult will assume Operating System specific paths.
These folders are used for:
* the most important folder. In this folder are the files Exult absolutely needs to run. We also check the checksums of these files to make sure that Exult uses the correct ones.
* the second most important folder. In there you have the data files from the original game. You should never touch these files.
* this is where Exult stores your savegames.
* contains the (dynamic) data for the game you're currently playing. It's where the "journey onward" and "quicksave" 'savegame' is stored.
* here mods for games are saved to. More information on this at 8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches
* Patches for games are saved here. More information on this at 8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches
Some notes for all Operating Systems:
* On Windows all of these settings, except for the setting, are optional and not required, Exult will sort this out on its own.
* On *nix and OS X you might even not need to touch the setting, if you stick to our standard gamenames.
* You can either use the relative (e.g. ./ultima7) or absolute (e.g. c:\exult\ultima7) path to point to the correct folder. The relative path uses the exult.exe, exult binary or Exult.app as base.
* Better don't use spaces in the path (e.g. c:\exult\the black gate\). Some people seem to have reported problems with that.
* Path settings in exult.cfg are the same on all operating systems. Of course you need to make adjustments on *nix based systems when you enter the absolute path.
* Exult and Exult Studio don't trust the exult.cfg 100% and will recognize which games you entered the path for. This means, that if you entered the path to SI in the Exult and Exult Studio will not be fooled.
* Don't ever point and to the same folder.
2.5. Path-Settings for Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and NT4.0
On Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and NT4.0 Exult will not use any special folders, instead it will use the folder where the games BG and SI are found.
data
path_to\gamename
path_to\gamename\static
path_to\gamename
path_to\gamename\gamedat
path_to\gamename\mods
path_to\gamename\patch
2.6. Path-Settings for Windows ME, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7
On Windows ME, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 Exult uses the special system folder LOCAL_APPDATA:
data
path_to\gamename
path_to/gamename/static
LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult\gamename
LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult\gamename\gamedat
path_to\gamename\mods
path_to\gamename\patch
Note that on Windows ME LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult translates to C:\Windows\Application Data\Exult, on Windows 2000 and XP to "C:\Documents and Settings\YourUsername\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult" and on Windows Vista and W7 to "C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Exult". Also not that on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 you can quickly access this folder by executing "shell:Local AppData\Exult" in the "Run" entry of the Startmenu (or the "Run or Search" entry of the Windows Vista and 7 Startmenu). For now Exult's data folder is always installed into the same folder where you installed Exult to (default is C:\Program Files\Exult). Also not that in contrast to Mac OS X and *nix systems there is no default path, where Exult looks for the games. You have to choose that folder yourself, but the installer will ask you for the BG and SI folder to set your paths up.
Example: User named Dominus on Windows XP. BG is installed to C:\Ultima7\blackgate and SI is installed to C:\Ultima7\serpentisle. The installer of Exult asks for the location of these two games and automatically saves that to exult.cfg. The installer saves exult.cfg to C:\Documents and Settings\Dominus\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult\exult.cfg. Exult gets installed to C:\Program Files\Exult. When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to C:\Documents and Settings\Dominus\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult\blackgate\exult00bg.sav, for SI to C:\Documents and Settings\Dominus\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult\serpentisle\exult00si.sav. If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to C:\Ultima7\blackgate\mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in C:\Documents and Settings\Dominus\Local Settings\Application Data\Exult\blackgate\mods\keyring\exult00bg.sav
Example: User named Dominus on Windows 7. BG is installed to C:\Ultima7\blackgate and SI is installed to C:\Ultima7\serpentisle. The installer of Exult asks for the location of these two games and automatically saves that to exult.cfg. The installer saves exult.cfg to C:\Users\Dominus\AppData\Local\Exult\exult.cfg. Exult gets installed to C:\Program Files\Exult. When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to C:\Users\Dominus\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\exult00bg.sav, for SI to C:\Users\Dominus\AppData\Local\Exult\serpentisle\exult00si.sav. If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to C:\Ultima7\blackgate\mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in C:\Users\Dominus\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\mods\keyring\exult00bg.sav
2.7. Path-Settings for Mac OS X
On Mac OS X Exult uses a couple of different folders to follow Apple's guidelines:
/Library/Application Support/Exult/data
/Library/Application Support/Exult/gamename
/Library/Application Support/Exult/gamename/static
~/Library/Application Support/exult/gamename
~/Library/Application Support/exult/gamename/gamedat
/Library/Application Support/exult/gamename/mods
/Library/Application Support/exult/gamename/patch
Note that on OS X Exult also has a default folder (/Library/Application Support/Exult/) for Exult's data and the files of the games. On purpose this folder is not in the User-only space, so other users on the same mac can play the games and use the Exult.app. But you will need to follow our gamename standard when you name the game folders, see 1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima 7, otherwise Exult will not find them there. Another specialty on OS X is that the Exult.app comes bundled with the Exult data, so Exult will first use the data in the Exult.app and then use the data in the default location (/Library/Application Support/Exult/data) or the location written down in exult.cfg's . This means that you can copy the sfx files and the digital music folder into the app bundle (Exult.app/Contents/Resources/data) and Exult will automatically use these.
Example: User named Dominus on Mac OS X 10.6. BG is installed to /Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate and SI is installed to /Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle. The app Exult.app is saved to /Applications. When you run Exult it will automatically recognize that BG and SI are installed. You do not need to edit exult.cfg, which is saved to /Users/Dominus/Library/Preferences/exult.cfg. When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to /Users/Dominus/Library/Application Support/exult/blackgate/exult00bg.sav, for SI to Users/Dominus/Library/Application Support/exult/serpentisle/exult00si.sav. If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to /Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate/mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in /Users/Dominus/Library/Application Support/exult/blackgate/mods/keyring/exult00bg.sav.
Please be aware of the difference between /Library/... and ~/Library/... In the root of your OS X system hard drive is the folder /Library. The folder ~/Library is a sub folder of your homefolder. If your username is foobar then the folder ~/Library is located at /Users/foobar/Library on your hard drive. On OS X 10.7 (Lion) and newer the folder ~/Library is hidden by default. To access it anyway open Finder, click on the menu item "Go" while pressing 'Option/Alt' and "Library" will be an option to click on.
If you followed all the instructions and Exult still won't recognize the games, you can try deleting exult.cfg in ~/Library/Preferences and then start Exult.
2.8. Path-Settings for *nix based systems
On *nix based systems Exult uses:
/usr/local/share/exult
/usr/local/share/exult/gamename
/usr/local/share/exult/gamename/static
$HOME/.exult/gamename
$HOME/.exult/gamename/gamedat
/usr/local/share/exult/gamename/mods
/usr/local/share/exult/gamename/patch
As on OS X, Exult uses on *nix systems a default path for its data folder and the game files. Unless you use a different path in exult.cfg, Exult will look for these in /usr/local/share/exult. But you will need to follow our gamename standard when you name the game folders, see 1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima 7, otherwise Exult will not find them there.
Example: User named Dominus on Ubuntu. BG is installed to /usr/local/share/exult/blackgate and SI is installed to /usr/local/share/exult/serpentisle. When you run Exult it will automatically recognize that BG and SI are installed. You do not need to edit exult.cfg, which is saved to $HOME/.exult.cfg. When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to $HOME/.exult/blackgate/exult00bg.sav, for SI to $HOME/.exult/serpentisle/exult00si.sav. If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to /usr/local/share/Exult/blackgate/mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in $HOME/.exult/blackgate/mods/keyring/exult00bg.sav.
2.9. Advanced Configuration: Using both the original and the Add-Ons
If you own both BG or SI without the add-ons FoV and SS and also the versions that has the add-ons you can now have them both shown in the Exult menu. Before you had to edit the exult.cfg when you wanted to switch the games. You now just have to add the tags for the two games.
path_to/blackgate
path_to/forgeofvirtue
path_to/serpentisle
path_to/silverseed
If you only own one version of the game, you don't have to worry about this advanced configuration, just follow the instructions at 2.1.. You only have to do this extra work if you want to differentiate between original game with and without the add-on.
Note: You cannot interchange savegames of games started with or without the add-ons.
And again, Exult and Exult Studio will not be fooled by false games under .
2.10. Command line options
Exult offers some "hidden" command line options:
* -h or --help Shows all the command line parameters in stderr (stderr.txt on Windows systems).
* -v or --version Shows version information in stderr.
* -c configfile Specify alternate config file (relative or absolute paths work).
* -p Portable option for Windows only. Exult will read cfg file from the folder it got installed to (or make one) and will also save to gamename folders in the Exult install folder. For example if Exult got installed to E:\Exult, a BG game will be saved to E:\Exult\blackgate. Be careful that you have actually writing permissions in the Exult folder or this will fail.
* --bg Starts the game with the Black Gate menu (prefers original game).
* --fov Starts the game with the menu of the Black Gate with Forge of Virtue expansion. Only useful if you have FoV added as described at 2.9., otherwise it will just work like the command '--bg'.
* --si Starts the game with the Serpent Isle menu (prefers original game).
* --ss Starts the game with the menu of the Serpent Isle with Silver Seed expansion. Only useful if you have SS added as described at 2.9., otherwise it will just work like the command '--si'.
* --nomenu Skips game menu.
* --game gamename Loads a game specified in exult.cfg when there are other games made with Exult Studio.
* --mod modname Must be used together with '--bg', '--si' or '--game gamename'; runs the specified game using the mod with title equal to 'modname'. 'modname' is the name of the mod cfg file (e.g. keyring.cfg means 'modname' 'keyring'.
* --buildmap x x = 0 shows all roofs, x = 2 pops them all. Builds the map of the game specified. The map is huge and in pcx format, you will need a lot of ram to even look at this map once it is build (and even that requires a lot of patience) Exult is required to be run in windowed mode and you get the best map if you started a new game before you build the map. You need to specify a game, either by '--bg' (or '--si', '--fov', '--ss') or with the '--game'/'--mod' option.
* --mapnum This must be used with '--buildmap'. Selects which map (for multimap games or mods) whose map is desired.
* --nocrc Recently we added a crc check that Exult doesn't start when the exult*.flx files in the data folder aren't the same it got compiled with. This parameter lets the game start nevertheless. Don't try this if you don't know what you are doing.
* --edit Start in map-edit mode. This will also load Exult Studio when the game is started.
* --write-xml Write 'patch/exultgame.xml'. Only useful for game editing.
* --reset-video resets Exult's video settings to the default values. Very helpful when Exult isn't playable anymore because of wrong settings.
2.11. Error Log
* Windows: Exult generates the files 'stdout.txt' and 'stderr.txt'. These may give you some idea of what is going on under the hood. When Exult suddenly quits, sometimes these files can help. You can find these files in the folder where exult.cfg is located (see 2.2.)
* UNIX/UNIX clones: the above mentioned logs are shown in the console from which Exult is started. ./exult >&log will send both stderr and stdout to the file named "log".
* Mac OS X: When you are running the app bundle Exult.app then the error log will be shown in the OS X Application Console (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app).
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3. Audio
3.1. Music
There are three general ways that music is played in Exult. One is using MIDI, which plays the music through any MIDI device, or software synthesizers like TiMidity and FluidSynth. Another way is Digital Music encoded into OGG (similar to MP3) which was recorded directly from a Roland MT-32. The third option is FMOpl which emulates Opl2/Adlib. The MIDI files are converted on-the-fly from the original Ultima 7 MT-32 files to General MIDI format so that they will be playable on modern General MIDI and General MIDI/GS supporting sound cards.
The Music driver options can be changed in the in-game menu that you open by hitting 'ESC'. There you can enable Digital Music and change the MIDI driver, through which you can also select the FMOpl emulation. When you enable Digital Music, it takes precedence over the MIDI driver.
3.2. MIDI Music
The MIDI driver can be changed to:
* Default This setting utilizes the default MIDI driver of your system.
* FMOPL This is a Software FM Synthesizer (also known as a emulated Opl2/Adlib).
* TiMidity is a software synthesizer that can play MIDI files without a hardware synthesizer. You can install TiMidity on all major Operating systems. You need to place tmidity.cfg into the same folder where the Exult executable is installed to, otherwise TiMidity will not work. On linux systems it needs to be in ~/.exult.
* FluidSynth is another software synthesizer, which uses SoundFont 2 technology without need for a SoundFont-compatible sound card. It is available for many Operating Systems and opposed to TiMidity still actively developed. Since Fluidsynth pulls in many dependencies it is not compiled into Exult at the moment. If you compiled Exult ourself and you enabled Fluidsynth you just need to edit exult.cfg and point to the SoundFont you want to use. Exult supports FluidSynth's soundfont stack. Soundfonts are specified in the exult.cfg entries (N = 0 to 9) which are loaded in numerical order (0 first), plus the old entry, which loads after all others.
* MT32Emu Roland MT32 emulation requires either the ROM set "MT32_CONTROL.ROM" and "MT32_PCM.ROM" or the ROM set "CM32L_CONTROL.ROM" and "CM32L_PCM.ROM" in the Exult data folder. If both sets are present the CM32L ROM set will be used.
* Windows When you are using Windows and for some reason the Default driver doesn't work.
* Amiga Uses the Amiga MIDI driver on the Amiga system.
* CoreAudio uses XMIDI on Mac OS X. You can use a different soundfont than OS X' default by pointing to it in exult.cfg.
* CoreMIDI on Mac OS X this MIDI driver allows using a real MIDI device like a Roland MT32 or software MIDI devices like Munt MT-32 Emulator. If you have more than one MIDI device you can choose the the device by setting the device ID in exult.cfg - see 3.5..
* alsa uses ALSA on Linux systems. If your ALSA port is not on 65:0 you need to change in the exult.cfg.
* Forked On *nix systems uses POSIX fork to create a new thread which will then handle the MIDI playback
* KMIDI On Linux systems uses uses libkmidi, a KDE MIDI library.
* UnixSeqDevice On Linux systems writes to special symbolic file, default "/dev/sequencer". This can be changed at in the exult.cfg.
For drivers that use a real MIDI device, the device type for MIDI can be changed to:
* MT32 This option will output the music with nothing changed. Because the mapping will be for MT32s you should only use this option if you have a MT32 compatible device. With this option Exult will also send SysEx messages to the Roland MT32 display, which are nice to watch when you have such a device.
* GM This will convert the MT32 patches to standard General MIDI patches. Conversion is fairly accurate but some instruments may be different.
* GS This will convert the MT32 patches to their equivalent GS patches. This will be a more accurate conversion that straight gm since more of the MT32 patches are in the GS set. However, not all MIDI devices will support this mode.
* GS127 This option is for MIDI devices that have a MT32 patch bank installed in Bank 127. Some GS implementation have this, some don't. Only use this if you know that you have a MT32 implementation on Bank 127.
* Fake MT32 This is for MIDI devices that behave like a MT32 but don't support SysEx messages. Use that option if you have a SoundFont or similar loaded for your sound card (or software synth such as FluidSynth) that contains the MT32 capital tones but the device can't be reprogrammed using MT32 SysEx commands by Exult.
NOTE: Currently the conversion to GS and GS127 is not finished and the notes are only mapped to General MIDI.
3.3. Abilities and limitations of the MIDI music engine
Due to the way the class was constructed input can be in either .mid, .rmi or the Miles Sound System .xmi format. There are no limitations to they types of .mid and .rmi supported. They can be Type 0, 1 and the rarely seen type 2. The loading routine is also fairly lenient of erroneous XMIDI files that do not have correct XMIDI headers.
During the development of the XMIDI class it was found that certain .xmi files in Serpent Isle had the first patch changes after the first note. The converter will attempt to correct these errors. However it may cause problems with some MIDI files. Currently this can not be disabled and may change in the future.
3.4. Windows MIDI Mapper
You can now tell Exult which MIDI device it should use. This is useful if you want Exult to use a different MIDI device than the default Windows device (like an MT-32).
To do this start Exult, on the menu choose "Exit". Now open the file stdout.txt in the folder where exult.cfg is located (see 2.2.). You will see a listing of the MIDI devices. For example with an SB Live! in Win2k it will look like this:
4 Midi Devices Detected Listing midi devices: -1: Microsoft MIDI-Mapper 0: A: SB Live! MIDI Synth 1: B: SB Live! MIDI Synth 2: SB Live! MIDI UART
By default Exult uses the Microsoft MIDI-Mapper (which uses the device you choose in the Windows Multimedia Properties). To change the MIDI Device open exult.cfg and change
-1
with the device you want to use.
3.5. OS X CoreMidi device ID
Similar to the above Windows MIDI mapper you can now tell Exult on OS X which MIDI device it should use. By default Exult uses OS X' CoreAudio device to output MIDI music. If you have a real MIDI device (e.g. Roland MT32) or another software MIDI device (e.g. Munt MT-32 Emulator) you want to use, you will need to select the CoreMidi MIDI driver. CoreMidi uses by default the MIDI device with the first device ID (0), if you have more than one device you will need to learn the device IDs first and then set it in exult.cfg.
To do this you will need to start Exult in a special way: right click on the Exult.app, select "Show Package Contents" which will show you the folder/file structure of the Exult.app. Doubleclick on "Contents", doubleclick on MacOS, doubleclick on exult. Terminal.app will open a window and will show you all kind of output while Exult will also start. in Exult click on setup and in the Audio settings select the CoreMidi driver (make sure to disable digital music). In the Terminal.app window you should now see a listing of the MIDI devices which could look like this:
Trying config specified Midi driver: `CoreMidi' CoreMidi driver found 4 destinations: 0: USB Midi Cable 1: uMIDI/O22 Port 1 2: uMIDI/O22 Port 2 3: Mt32EmuPort
By default Exult uses the first device with the device ID 0, in this case "USB Midi Cable". To change the MIDI Device open exult.cfg and change
0
with the device ID of the device you want to use.
3.6. Digital Music
Exult needs the Digital Music pack to play Digital Music in the game. The music pack contains music for both Black Gate and Serpent Isle, encoded in high quality OGG format. Simon Quinn recorded the current Digital Music pack on an original Roland MT-32 and with this you will experience the music as it would be heard with the original game. Digital Music should work on any platform that supports digital sound and does not use any MIDI, so it is also a good option for platforms with no MIDI support. Additionally, Digital Music supports a number of background atmospheric SFX tracks that are played when no music is playing. These consist of wind, bird etc effects outside and other sound effects when inside a dungeon. These SFX tracks are not available when using MIDI as they play Roland MT-32 specific voices that cannot be mapped to GM/GS. These SFX tracks do not play when the music is switched off.
The digital music pack seems to have two issue, though, some tracks seem to have been recorded at lower volume than the others. Also, since both the digital music and the sound effects are played by the Wave / PCM of your sound card, you can no longer have a different volume for music and sound effects.
3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects
Exult needs the so called SFX packs to enable sound effects for Ultima 7. You have to download separate packs for each game as order of the SFX in BG and SI varies a bit and otherwise will sound odd. However there is a little issue with SFX playback in SI: In combat the SFX may be a little wrong as we still haven't figured out all the data in the 'weapons.dat'. Also Exult doesn't yet playback all the SFX that the original did.
3.8. All-in-One Audio Data pack and installers
We've combined all the audio data we offer, Digital Music and Digital Wave Sound Effects, into an all-in-one pack which saves you downloading several smaller zip files. You can download a zip file for manual installation or an installer for either Windows or Mac OS X. Chose the one you want to use on our download page at http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php. If you are using Exult on either Windows or Mac OS X, we recommend you download and run the installer. On *nix or if you want to manually install the all-in-one pack, you will need to grab the zip file.
To install the zip file, extract its content to the Exult data folder. On *nix systems this is by default /usr/local/share/exult. On Mac OS X it is /Library/Applcation Support/Exult/data and on Windows it's in the folder data in the folder where you installed Exult to (by default C:\Program Files\Exult).
Below you can read the instructions on how to use and install the individual packs for digital music and wave effects if. You don't need them if you downloaded the All-in-One zip or installer.
3.9. Installation of the digital music packs
If you downloaded and installed the above All-in-One Audio Data pack you don't need to bother with the following instructions.
The Digital Music pack can be downloaded from http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php, the files are called Ogg encoded Music files for Exult Part 1 (U7MusicOGG_1of2.zip) and Ogg encoded Music files for Exult Part 2 (U7MusicOGG_2of2.zip). The readme.txt found in the ZIP files contains installation instructions that are no longer 100% valid and should not be followed. Create a music folder in exult/data (i.e. exult/data/music/) and extract the two ZIP files U7MusicOGG_1of2.zip and U7MusicOGG_2of2.zip into this folder. If you are not sure where the data folder is, search for the file exult_bg.flx on your hard drive as this file is always in the data folder. Now start up Exult and start either a game of BG or SI. Hit 'ESC' to enter the game menu. Here select Audio Options and in the "Music options" enable the digital music option.
It isn't necessary but you can also customize the location of the music files by adding to exult.cfg. Example:
data
data/music
3.10. Installation of the digital wave sound effects
If you downloaded and installed the above All-in-One Audio Data pack you don't need to bother with the following instructions.
We currently have two soundpacks for each game. Joseph Morris recorded the original SoundBlaster SFX and Simon Quinn recorded the Roland MT32 SFX. You can find them on our download page at http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php. "Sound pack for Blackgate" and "Sound pack for Serpent Isle" are the SoundBlaster sound effects. "Sound pack for Black Gate (Roland MT-32)" and "Sound pack for Serpent Isle (Roland MT-32)" are the Roland MT32 sound effects.
Extract the zip files into your Exult data folder. Exult will automatically find and use the SFX packs and will default to use the Roland MT32 pack when both both packs (SoundBlaster and Roland MT-32) are present. You can then choose between the packs in the Game Menu (7.4.), of course you can override this setting in the exult.cfg (see 2.3.). An example of how the relevant part of exult.cfg looks when you prefer the SoundBlaster SFX:
jmsfx.flx
jmsisfx.flx
3.11. Speech
Exult can play the Ultima VII's speech through SDL, and its own internal mixer. You can turn on/off speech via the in-game menu or change the settings in exult.cfg - see 2.3..
3.12. Turn off Audio
Press 'Esc' to turn on/off Music, Speech and SoundFX via the in-game menu or change the settings in exult.cfg - see 2.3..
3.13. Linux and Audio
Apparently Exult has some problem with the sound drivers in the 2.4 kernel, notably with the SoundBlaster Live. Therefore we advice our users to install ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) found at http://www.alsa-project.org. ALSA is going to replace OSS in the upcoming stable (2.6) Kernel anyway. We are sorry for this.
You can now configure the ALSA port for your distribution in .exult.cfg (see 2.3.). By default we use 65:0, Gentoo needs 128:0.
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4. Video
4.1. Resolution
We distinguish between the Exult display resolution (which determines the size of the Exult window and its fullscreen rendering) and the game area, which determines how big the in-game viewing area is.
By default Exult runs the games at 320x200 (which is the resolution the original Ultima VII used). Exult can use different scaling engines to double the size to 640x400 or even triple the the size to 960x600 while increasing the quality of the graphics and maintaining the same viewing area. This allows Exult to show the game as an enhanced version of how it originally appeared, and not show locations that were originally off-screen. When you first start Exult we apply the scaler 2xSaI which doubles the size of each pixel, resulting in a 640x400 window.
You will also have to hit "Apply" in the Video gump to apply your changes. Exult will then use the new settings and will show you a countdown which asks you to confirm that the new video settings are working. When you don't confirm by hitting "YES", the changes will be reverted. This way we try to prevent that some bad video options combinations prevent you from playing the games.
When you disallow same settings for window and fullscreen mode in the Game menu, settings can be set for either fullscreen or windows mode just by selecting different settings while using either mode.
4.2. Fill modes
The game area with scaler applied should not be bigger than the display, otherwise you will get strange effects and the game might crash. For example when you set the game area to 320x200 with the scaler Point at sale factor 3, your game viewing area is actually 960x600. If your display resolution is set to 640x480 the resolutions don't match and your Exult window will be smaller than intended. Exult will check whether this will happen and will warn you against it, since making the window smaller than 320x200 will cause you trouble with Exults interface and you might not be able to revert your changes.
On the other hand when your display resolution is set higher than the game resolution you can have black borders surrounding the game viewing area. The borders can be used for positioning gumps and the face stats. You can also change the color of the borders. If you don't like black borders you can also stretched to fill the entire display resolution, or sacled to fit the display resolution without stretching the pixels. You have the following options
* Fill ame screen is stretched to fill the entire display surface. No borders will be added in this mode. The game screen will be downsampled if it is bigger than the display surface in this mode.
* Fit Game is scaled to fill the display surface maintaining square pixels. Black borders will be added to maintain aspect if needed. The game screen will be downsampled if it is bigger than the display surface in this mode.
* "Aspect Correct Fit" Same as fit, but pixels are additionally scaled using a 1:1.2 ratio. This corrects the aspect mismatch between the nonsquare pixels used by the original game and the square pixels of modern screen resolutions.
* Centre The game is centred on the display surface without additional scaling. Black borders will be added if game screen is smaller than the display surface. Clipping will occur if the game screen is larger than the display surface.
* "Aspect Correct Centre" Same as Centre except height is scaled by 1.2x to correct pixel aspect mismatch..
If the Game Area setting is set to Auto then the game area is calculated based on the selected fill mode with no additional scaling applied. The additional scaling method can be set to Point or Bilinear.
4.3. Higher resolution is cheating
Using higher resolutions is considered cheating as you can see too much of the surrounding area. Since the game was designed to be played at a specific size (320x200), this can actually lead to plot-stopping problems; hence we will not fix any problem caused by your cheating! Don't say we didn't warn you :-) But being able to play in higher resolutions is actually one of the big advantages of Exult but as mentioned above it comes with a price.
4.4. Scaler
The scalers also work with higher resolutions than 320x200. To change the scaling method either use the Exult menu or change your exult.cfg - see 2.3..
* Point simple but very fast scaler. Only duplicates pixels, no fancy interpolation. Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...).
* Bilinear bilinear interpolation to smooth the result. Slower than point, but looks better. Only 2x.
* BilinearPlus same as Bilinear and it may even be a bit faster.
* Interlaced identical to point except that it skips every other line to be even faster. Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...).
* Scale2x by Andrea Mazzoleni This is a non-blurring scaler that looks good without soaking up a lot of CPU cycles. Get more information on this scaler at http://scale2x.sf.net.
* SuperEagle by Derek Liauw Only 2x.
* Super2xSai by Derek Liauw Only 2x.
* 2xSaI by Derek Liauw Only 2x. The current Exult default scaler.
* HQ2X High quality scaler, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 2x.
* HQ3X High quality scaler, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 3x.
* HQ4X High quality scaler, that uses a *lot* of CPU cycles. Only 4x.
* 2xBR High quality scaler by Hyllian Github, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 2x.
* 3xBR Same as 2xBR but only 3x.
* 4xBR Same as 2xBR but only 4x.
* OpenGL Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...). But this scaler is not considered stable. You can expect errors when using this scaler. Because of this OpenGL is only available in snapshots of Exult, not in official releases.
The scalers by Derek Liauw are slower than the ones above it but many prefer them. Try out for yourself which one you like most since this is a highly subjective topic.
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5. Movement and Keys
5.1. Movement
* Hold right mouse button down to move Avatar.
* Clicking with the right mouse button will make the Avatar find a path to the selected spot. Default is a double click but you can also choose a single click in the options.
* Click on objects with left button to identify them.
* Double-click on characters to hold conversations.
* Double-click on doors, shutters with left button to open or close them.
* Click and hold an item to move the item if the item is moveable and can be reached by the Avatar.
* Press 'Ctrl' while dropping a stack of items (coins, bolts...) to drop the whole stack without being asked for confirmation of the amount of items to drop.
Nadir implemented keyboard walking in the post 1.0 versions of Exult. The Avatar can be moved with the arrow keys (or the keypad keys for more precise movement). When you move while holding shift the Avatar walks slowly otherwise he is in running mode.
5.2. Keyboard commands
All key commands of Exult can be changed for either BG or SI. However, there is a default setting which closely follows the original with the addition of some improvements.
To change your key bindings first edit the defaultkeys file in your Exult folder (bgdefaultkeys.txt for BG and sidefaultkeys.txt for SI), change the bindings and save the file (e.g. as my_keys.txt). Now you have to change exult.cfg to use that file. See the keys settings at 2.3.. Change (default) to my_keys.txt.
During the game press 'h' to see a help screen with most of the keys (for OS X change Alt for Cmd - the in-game help screen shows the correct key combination for OS X). 'KP' means keypad.
Default keyboard commands
KP+/- : Change brightness
Esc : Show Game menu box and closes all open boxes
right : run east
left : run west
up : run north
down : run south
KP1 : run southwest
KP2 : run south
KP3 : run southeast
KP4 : run west
KP5 : recenter map
KP6 : run east
KP7 : run northwest
KP8 : run north
KP9 : run northeast
Shift-right : walk east
Shift-left : walk west
Shift-up : walk north
Shift-down : walk south
Shift-KP1 : walk southwest
Shift-KP2 : walk south
Shift-KP3 : walk southeast
Shift-KP4 : walk west
Shift-KP6 : walk east
Shift-KP7 : walk northwest
Shift-KP8 : walk north
Shift-KP9 : walk northeast
F4 : Toggle full screen
Alt-Enter : Toggle full screen
b : Use spell book
c : Combat mode
Space : pause combat
f : Use food
g : Use Abacus
h : Show list of keyboard commands
i : Show inventory
j : SI: Show jawbone
k : BG: Try all keys to unlock a lock
k : SI: Use keyring
Alt-k : SI: Try all keys to unlock a lock
l : SI: Show combat stats
m : Show map
n : Show notebook
o : BG: Use the Orb of the Moons
p : Use lockpicks
Alt-q : Exit game
r : Brings up status bars. First three strokes change the location of the bar. The fourth disables it again.
Ctrl-r : Quick restore
Ctrl-s : Quick save
s : Show save/load box
Ctrl-Alt-s : Screenshot
t : Target, instead of double clicking, shows a cursor and pauses the game until you click on something
v : About screen
w : Use watch, shows the time if you got a watch
Alt-x : Exit game
z : Show stats
1 : Show inventory for Avatar
2 : Show inventory for character 2
3 : Show inventory for character 3
4 : Show inventory for character 4
5 : Show inventory for character 5
6 : Show inventory for character 6
7 : Show inventory for character 7
8 : Show inventory for character 8
In conversations you have the ability not just click on the answer with the mouse but also to use the numeric keys. The response options aren't numbered visually but logically with the dots. Also press 'Esc' to select "bye" if possible.
5.3. Cheat keys
Press 'ctrl-h' during the game to see a help screen with all the cheat keys. 'KP' means keypad.
Cheat commands
Alt-Arrow keys : Scroll map
home : Recenter map on the Avatar
KP5 : Recenter map on the Avatar
F2 : Cheat screen similar to the originals'. Allows for some level of NPC editing and other cheat options
F3 : Map teleport
F10 : Show endgame
F11 : SI: Play alternate intro
Ctrl-b : Shape browser
Insert : Create object (that is chosen in the shape browser)
Alt-V : Create object (alternative key combination)
Ctrl-d : Delete object
e : Toggle egg display
Alt-g : Toggle God mode
Ctrl-g : Change avatar gender
Alt-h : Hackmover (you can move all objects around and it disables weight check
Ctrl-h : list cheat keys
Ctrl-Alt-h : Resurrect, heal party, cure poison and still hunger
Alt-i : Toggle infravision
Ctrl-l : Level up party
Ctrl-m : Get 100 gold coins
Alt-Shift-m : Play previous song
Alt-m : Play next song
Alt-n : SI: Toggle naked flag
Alt-p : SI: Toggle Petra mode
Alt-s : Change skin color
Ctrl-Alt-t : Map teleport
Ctrl-t : Advance to next time period
Alt-t : Teleport (to current cursor position)
Alt-w : Toggle archwizard mode (all spells etc.)
Alt-1 : Test music, SFX, speech
Ctrl-Alt-g : Grab NPC for cheat screen
Ctrl-Alt-p : Pick pocket cheat, when enabled double-clicking on a NPC displays the actors inventory
Ctrl-n : NPC number, When enabled, clicking an a NPC will display their number instead of their name. Useful for the cheat screen.
5.4. Map Editing keys
With the ongoing development of Exult a lot of keys were added that are mainly useful for map editing with Exult Studio. Hit 'shift-h' to see the map edit keys help screen. You will only be able to see this help screen and use these keys with a snapshot of Exult.
Map edit commands
Del : Delete selection
Ctrl-Arrow keys : move selection (x,y coordinates)
Ctrl-Page keys : move selection (z coordinates)
Ctrl-c : Copy selected object
Ctrl-x : Cut selected object
Ctrl-v : Paste selected object
Shift-F3 : write Minimap
Shift-h : List map edit keys
Alt-l : Decrement skiplift
Ctrl-Alt-m : Toggle Map editor
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6. ShortcutBar, Notebook and Screenshots
6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions
Especially on mobile devices it makes sense to have a shortcutbar that allows quick actions with just one or a double click. This was first implemented in the Exult for iOS fork but later back ported and improved in main Exult. By default the shortcutbar is disabled, but can be enabled and further configured in the 7.6. Misc Options. You can make the bar transparent (only when drawn on the map) and select different colors for the outlines around the buttons. Some buttons only work when you have a certain item (spellbook, jawbone in SI). You can choose to hide those buttons or display them greyed out.
The buttons have the following functions (cheat functions only work when you enabled cheats in 7.5. Gameplay Options):
* Floppy Disk Single click opens the game menu, double click the 7.2. Load/Save Game Additionally clicking it will close all Gumps that are open.
* Dove/Flaming Sword Toggles combat but also shows you whether you are in combat mode (flaming sword) when combat is toggled in another way.
* Map Shows you the map, on double click opens the map teleporter
* Spellbook Opens your spellbook if you have it.
* Backpack On each click opens the paperdoll of party members.
* Key (Keyring in SI) Single click gives you a target pointer that tries all keys on the lock you click on. A double click uses a lockpick if you have any in your party. When you acquire the keyring in SI, the button will change into the keyring and use that on a single click.
* Notebook Opens the notebook (see 6.2. Using the Notebook), on double click shows you the cheat menu.
* Target single click gives you the target pointer, double click changes the pointer to a red cross which will cheat teleport you wherever you click.
* Fork and Knife A single click lets you feed a party member while a double click will use bandages or healing potions to heal.
* Jawbone (SI only) Opens the jawbone gump if you have the jawbone.
6.2. Using the Notebook
We implemented a notebook you can access by pressing 'n'. With this you can make notes of things you saw, or "heard" from any of the NPCs. Entries will be saved when you close the notebook and save the game.
Additionally when you have cheats enabled you will see the coordinates (in decimal) where you wrote your note.
6.3. The automatic Notebook
If you want you can also have Exult automatically make some notes on its own when certain things happen in game. This feature has not yet progressed very far, especially for SI we have mostly basic pointers of what was noted. You can enable autonotes in the 7.6. Misc Options.
You can also write your own autonotes and override the ones that come with Exult. For BG download https://github.com/exult/exult/raw/master/data/bg/autonotes.txt. For SI download https://github.com/exult/exult/raw/master/data/si/autonotes.txt. Then change the setting in exult.cfg to point at the path of these files instead of being set to (default). Example:
path_to\gamename
path_to/gamename/autonotes.txt
6.4. Screenshots
When you press 'Ctrl-Alt-s'Exult will make a screenshot of your game window in PCX image file format. The save location of the screenshot depends on your Operating system.
* On Windows Exult saves the screenshot to the same location where exult.cfg is found, see 2.2. Location of exult.cfg.
* On *nix systems, including OS X, Exult saves to the HOME folder.
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7. Exult Setup and Game Menu
7.1. Access to the Exult Setup and Game menu
The Exult Setup and Game menu share mostly the same options, except for the option to "Save/Load games" and to "Quit" the game which are only available in the Game menu once you loaded a game.
Exult Setup can only be opened on the Exult menu by selecting the "Setup" option. And you can access the Game menu either by pressing the disk icon in the Avatar's inventory screen or by pressing 'Esc'. The following options are available for the Exult Setup menu and the Game menu:
7.2. Load/Save Game
This one is pretty straightforward. You can load and save a game, delete a game and view some information of a save game on the right side (a screenshot and some stats). If you have a wheel mouse you can scroll one line up/down by using the wheel. Pressing 'Alt' while using the wheel scrolls by pages. Pressing Cancel exits the Load/Save options. This is only available in game through the Game menu.
7.3. Video Options
In this option screen you are able to determine how Exult displays the game.
* Full Screen enable or disable running Exult in full screen.
* Window Size lets you choose between various resolutions determined by the fullscreen resolutions your system reports as supported. If you want other resolutions edit exult.cfg outlined in 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg.
* Scaler lets you choose your favorite scaling engine. Also look at 4.4. Scaler for an explanation.
* Scaling choose between 1x up to 8x. Further explanation in 4.4. Scaler. For scalers that have a default only scaling (e.g. 2xSaI) this option will be hidden.
* Game Area the size of your game viewing area in the Exult window. You can choose between the original default resolution of '320x200' or 'Auto' which tries to set the best viewing area for the chosen resolution.
* Fill Quality the scaler used by the different fill modes. You can chose between Point and Bilinear.
* Fill Mode Different modes on how to display the Game Area in the Exult window size. Please see 4.2. Fill modes.
* AR Correction Aspect Ratio Correction for the fill modes "Fit" and "Centre".
* Same setting for window and fullscreen When you disable this you can select different settings for window and fullscreen mode by changing the settings while being in either mode.
* APPLY Checks whether your changes can cause problems, applies your changes and gives you a countdown to confirm that the new settings are working correctly. If you don't want to apply your changes, click on the red checkmark to the left.
7.4. Audio Options
Look at 3. Audio to see explanation on the settings.
* Audio Enable or disable all Audio in Exult.
* Music options Enable or disable music.
* looping Disable restores the (broken) way the original handled the music looping flag.
* digital music Enables/disables Digital Music.
* MIDI driver choose between different drivers for MIDI, see 3.2..
* device type choose between different device types for MIDI music, see 3.2..
* effects alters the way the MIDI is played. Choose between Reverb, Chorus, Both (Reverb and Chorus) or disable it.
* SFX Enable or disable digital sound effects.
* Pack choose between our standard SFX packs, Roland MT32 and Soundblaster, see 3.7.. This option is not available in the Exult Setup.
* Speech enable or disable speech. When disabled you will see subtitles when the Guardian or the Great Earth Serpent speaks
* OK/Cancel Ok accepts your changes, Cancel discards your changes.
7.5. Gameplay Options
* Status Bars You can either disable the status bars or choose its position on the bottom of the screen (left, middle, right).
* Text Background shows a tinted background behind text in conversations to make it easier to read. Either disable it or choose between the colors purple, orange, light gray, green, yellow, pale blue, dark green, red, bright white, dark gray and white.
* Fullscreen Fast Mouse makes the mouse cursor move faster in full screen modes. Enable or disable it.
* Use middle mouse button In the normal game, the middle mouse button activates the target-function (which could also be accomplished by pressing 't'). For modal gumps, the middle mouse acts as 'return', the right button as 'escape', so you can now for example accept the default slider value by just pressing the middle button. The escape function is also available during most other actions like selecting a target or conversations. Enable or disable it.
* Doubleclick closes gumps pretty straightforward, right?
* Right click closes gumps the same but different.
* Right click Pathfinds Right-clicking on a spot makes the avatar walk to it. Default is a double click but you can set it to a single one or disable it.
* Gumps pause games In the original the game got paused when Gumps were shown. Enable/disable it.
* Cheats Enables or disables all the cheats that we implemented in Exult. See 5.3. Cheat keys what those cheats are.
* Speed if Exult seems too fast lower this setting. If it seems to sluggish raising this setting may help.
* Smooth scrolling Disabled/25%/50%/75%/100% percentage of how smooth the game scrolls when the avatar moves. When disabled Exult uses the "jerky" scrolling of the original game.
* Paperdolls only available in Black Gate and only if you have Serpent Isle installed as well. Enables or disable Paperdolls (inventory screen) in the style of Serpent Isle.
* OK/Cancel Ok accepts your changes, Cancel discards your changes.
7.6. Misc Options
* Scroll game view with mouse When cheats are enabled you can scroll the game view with the scroll wheel of the mouse, when you hold down the 'Alt' you will scroll sideways (to the west or to the east).
* Skip intro When enabled you don't have to watch the splash screen and intro when you select a game from the Exult menu.
* Skip scripted first scene When you start a new game of BG or SI the game starts with a scripted scene during which you can't move the Avatar. Enable this to skip this part but only do this if you have already played the game and have seen this scene.
* Alternate drag'n'drop When enabled dropping a stack of items (coins, bolts...) will drop the whole stack without asking for confirmation of the amount of items to drop. Hold 'Ctrl' while dropping if you need to split a stack.
* Autonotes Toggle writing automatic notes to the notebook - see 6.3. The automatic Notebook.
* Use ShortcutBar Toggle the ShortcutBar or make it transparent when on the map - see 6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions.
* Use outline color Choose a the color of the outline around the ShortcutBar buttons or disable it - see 6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions.
* Hide missing items hides ShortcutBar items the party doesn't have, otherwise missing items are greyed out - see 6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions.
* Combat options: As many people think that the U7 combat engine is far too easy, too hard or just can't stand the real-time-combat Jeff put in some options to make combat more interesting.
* Difficulty Ranges from Easiest (-3) to Hardest (3). It affects the chance of a hit, and the HP that is lost if a hit occurs.
* ShowHits With this enabled you can see the hit points of NPCs in brackets after their name when you left-click on them.
* Mode choose between Original and SpacePauses. SpacePauses gives you a little more control of combat. When you hit space the game pauses and you can direct a party member by right-clicking, then clicking on a target to attack. Or change weapons, choose a favorite spell.
* Charmed difficulty choose between Normal and Hard. With Normal the Avatar can't be charmed. The original game allowed him to be charmed though that only highlighted him as charmed and the charmed status icon showed but you could control him as usual. Hard will neither allow the player to control charmed party members, including the Avatar, nor access the inventory of a charmed party member. But you can still manipulate objects that are not in the charmed party members possessions even if the Avatar is the one who is charmed. Charmed party members will continue to attack, even if the player ends combat.
7.7. Quit
Exits Exult. This option is only available in the Game menu.
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8. Mods and Patches
8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches
With Exult Studio advancing more and more, there are now a small number mods and patches developed, both by Exult team members and other users. See FAQ.txt for a list.
Patches are meant for what the name implies, little patches to the original game. Changing shapes, fixing or changing some usecode and such. Patches also have the limitation that you can only have one patch per original game installed.
Mods on the other hand are more or less meant for heavy modifications of the original games. Changing the map layout, adding NPCs and objects, changing usecode and so on. You can have several mods installed which can be chosen from a convenient menu in Exult. Because of these advantages that mods have over patches, people now develop mods rather than patches.
8.2. Installing Mods
To install a mod unzip or move the mod files (if they come unzipped) into your games 'mods' folder. By default that is the mods subfolder in the path you set for your game in the exult.cfg file (see 2.4. Path-Settings. If the folder is not there, simply create an empty folder called 'mods' in your games folder and proceed as above. Now start a new game, choose the mod in the menu and enjoy the mod.
Please read the readme(.txt) that should have come with the mods. In there you will normally find further instructions and what the mod is about and how to experience the changes in the game.
Also be aware that mods do not work with Exult version 1.2 but need a new snapshot. Unfortunately, since there were so many advancements in the map editing since Exult 1.2 mods that are no longer maintained might no longer work.
8.3. Installing Patches
Installation of patches is very similar to the installation of mods: unzip or move the patch files (if they come unzip) into your games 'patch' folder. By default that is the patch subfolder in the path you set for your game in the exult.cfg file (see 2.4. Path-Settings). If the folder is not there, simply create an empty folder called 'patch' in your games folder and proceed as above. Now start a new game and enjoy the patch.
Please read the readme(.txt) that should have come with the patch. In there you will normally find instructions and what the patch is about and how to experience the changes in the game.
Also be aware that patches do not work with Exult version 1.2 but need a newer snapshot. Unfortunately, since there were so many advancements in the map editing since Exult 1.2 patches that are no longer maintained might no longer work.
8.4. Adapting the location of Mods and Patches
In exult.cfg you can adapt where Exult looks for both mods and patches. The paths Exult uses by default, are explained in 2.4., so stick to that for the location of mods and patches, and only edit the config file if you need to.
path_to/gamename
path_to/gamename/mods
path_to/gamename/patch
8.5. Where to find the savegames of modded games
When you save a modded game the savegames are saved to /mods/name_of_mod. The Gamedat folder will be found in that folder as well. For the location of , please see 2.4. Path-Settings and the following chapters for your Operating System.
Note, you can override the location of savegames in the cfg of the mod under the . For example if you install the BG Keyring mod, you would find the settings for that mod in keyring.cfg.
8.6. Exchanging Savegames between original games and Mods
You cannot exchange savegames between original games and mods. For example, when you start a new game with a mod for BG and later run that same savegame from BG only, it might actually work, but the results are unpredictable. The game might run ok for a while until you hit a problem caused by the missing mod. So don't do it.
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9. iOS Guide
9.1. The port to iOS
In January 2015 Chaoji Li (aka Litchie) forked Exult on Github to work on the initial porting effort by Lanica Dragon (which had stopped in 2013). Even while this port is a fork and not an official port, this documentation aims to help iOS users.
Note that Exult runs very nicely on iPads but the item management of the games makes playing on the smaller iPhone screens a bit of a challenge. Starting with the screen size of the iPhone 6 things become easier.
9.2. Installing Exult on your iPhone/iPad
For now Exult is not on the App Store but there are two other ways to get it on your device.
* If your iOS device is on iOS version 9.x and higher and you are running a Mac, you can download Xcode from the AppStore, clone the git repository, run the Xcode project file and easily install Exult on your device. This is called "sideloading", if you need more information.
* Write an email to Dominus Dragon (see About Us) to sign up for the beta testing (through Apple's iTunes Connect/TestFlight).
9.3. Installing the games on your iPhone/iPad
Once you have the Exult app on your device, you will need to upload the games to your device using iTunes file sharing. But it needs a bit of preparing.
First you will need to put the games into a folder called game and use the following folder structure: game game +-- blackgate | +--- static | +---- *.* +-- serpentisle | +--- static | +---- *.* Please make sure that all the file and folder names are in lowercase, iOS is case sensitive and the games might not be detected otherwise.
Now connect your device to your computer, start iTunes and select your device in it. Click "Apps", scroll down to "File Sharing" and select Exult. Now drag and drop the game folder you prepared in the first step.
Note: if you want to use mods just add them to the game folder structure before you drag and drop that in iTunes file sharing. Example with the BG keyring and SI fixes mods: game +-- blackgate | +--- static | +---- *.* | +--- mods | +---- keyring | +----- *.* | +---- keyring.cfg +-- serpentisle | +--- static | +---- *.* | +--- mods | +---- sifixes | +----- *.* | +---- sifixes.cfg
9.4. Installing sfx and digital music
To install the optional sfx and digital music, please download the "Zipped all-in-one audio pack for manual installation" zip file from our download page. Unzip everything to a folder called "data" and drag and drop this also in iTunes file sharing. Do NOT put it in the "game" folder.
9.5. iOS controls
When playing you have a dpad overlaying the game screen which by default is on the right of the screen (but can be set to the left side). Tapping with your finger is equal to a left click in the game. The green (and eventually red (combat)) movement cursor and the hand pointer are invisible on iOS as they are more distracting than helping when you control and click with your finger.
There is also a helper menu when you click near objects in the games, which can be helpful on the smaller iPhone screens but can be disabled in the iOS settings.
9.6. Additional iOS settings
There is an additional "iOS Options" item in both the Exult Setup and Game menu which offers to change the following settings:
* Item helper menu enable or disable the helper menu that opens when you click near objects.
* D-Pad screen location you can disable the D-Pad (not advisable) or choose on which side of your screen it should be shown.
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10. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult
10.1. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI on Windows
Insert Disk 1 in your floppy drive, open explorer and click on the floppy drive (a:\). Double click on install.exe, choose the drive you want to install to, and then in which folder you want BG/SI to be installed to (Let's assume C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 for BG and C:\Exult\SERPENT for SI). Next you choose the sound card, but as this is not relevant for Exult, choose "No sound card". Confirm the settings with "Y" and the installer begins to make noise in your floppy drive... When asked to insert the next floppy disk and hit any key (or ESC to cancel). When the installation is done, the installer will complain, that "something has put your system in protected mode...", ignore that and press any key to continue. Again it will complain that "your current system configuration is not compatible with Ultima VII!...", ignore that as well and press "N" (you don't need a boot disk for playing U7 with Exult). Finally hit any key to finish your installation. The installer will finish and the game can be found at C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 or C:\Exult\SERPENT.
When installing Ultima VII from floppy disks in Windows you can run into some problems. The installer assumes that all drives in the computer are hard drives and can't cope with drives like CD-ROMs and card readers. It tries to read how much free space the drives have and if there is no media in the drive it gives an error and you can't proceed. To solve this you have to insert a CD-ROM in your CD/DVD-ROM drive. If you have a multi card reader disconnect that if possible (or insert cards in all the slots if you have them). If disconnecting the reader is not possible you have to use one of the other ways to install the floppy versions or use a different computer.
Unfortunately it is possible that one of the floppies is no longer working. In that case the installation will fail and the installer might suggest that there is a device error and asks you to reboot your computer. Don't follow that advice a reboot is not likely to fix it.
10.2. Installing the floppy disks of the Add-Ons FoV/SS on Windows
Insert the add-on floppy disk in your floppy drive, open explorer and click on the floppy drive (a:\). Double click on install.exe, and then you first have to choose the drive where you installed the game (BG/SI) to. Default is C:\, the installer will then search in which folder BG/SI has been installed to. This is unfortunately not working on every computer, for some unknown reason the installer might crash at this point. If it doesn't crash the installer will write where it found BG/SI installed to and will ask whether you want to proceed with the installation. Hit "Y" and the installation will begin, at the end press any key to finish the installation and to close the installer.
When installing the add-ons you might run into the same problems as when installing the full games (see above 10.1.).
10.3. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI using DOSBox
DOSBox is a program that emulates the old Dos and should run on any operating system that Exult runs on (and more). So this is perfect for users that don't run Windows.
To install Ultima VII with DOSBox, download and install DOSBox from http://http://dosbox.com. Make a new folder in your C:\ drive called Exult. Insert Disk 1 in your floppy drive, start DOSBox and type the following: mount c C:\Exult mount a a:\ -t floppy a: install
The installer will start and ask you on which drive to install Ultima VII to. Choose c and when it asks for the target folder choose C:\ULTIMA7 for BG or C:\SERPENT for SI (in both cases you can just hit enter). Next you choose the sound card, but as this is not relevant for Exult, choose "No sound card". Confirm the settings with "Y" and the installer begins to make noise in your floppy drive... When asked to insert the next floppy disk and hit any key (or ESC to cancel). When the installation is done, the installer will complain, that "something has put your system in protected mode...", ignore that and press any key to continue. Again it will complain that "your current system configuration is not compatible with Ultima VII!...", ignore that as well and press "N" (you don't need a boot disk for playing U7 with Exult). Finally hit any key to finish your installation. Close DOSBox. The game can now be found at C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 or C:\Exult\SERPENT.
10.4. Installing the floppy disks of the Add-Ons FoV/SS using DOSBox
We assume you followed the above guide on how to 10.3. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI using DOSBox, so you should have BG/SI installed to C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 or C:\Exult\SERPENT.
Insert the add-on floppy disk in your floppy drive, start DOSBox and type the following: mount c C:\Exult mount a a:\ -t floppy a: install
Now you have to choose the drive where you installed the game to. Choose C and the installer will find the correct folder of BG/SI and will ask for your confirmation to proceed with the installation. Hit "Y" and the installation will begin, at the end press any key to finish the installation and to close the installer. Close DOSBox. FoV is then installed in C:\Exult\ULTIMA7. SS is then installed in C:\Exult\SERPENT.
Unfortunately you might run into a DOSBox bug when installing the add-ons in DOSBox. You might have to rename the file C:\Exult\ULTIMA7\static\usecode.new to just C:\Exult\ULTIMA7\static\usecode (or C:\Exult\SERPENT\static\usecode.new to just C:\Exult\SERPENT\static\usecode)
10.5. Manual installation of the BG floppy disks
If for some reason you can't use the above guides to install BG, there is also a way to install BG without using the installer.
Copy all the files of your floppy files in one folder (e.g. C:\Exult\BGfloppy). If you are using Windows open a command prompt (run -> cmd.exe) and change into this folder (enter cd C:\Exult\BGfloppy). There enter the following lines and press return after each line: copy /b u7disk00 + U7disk01 + u7disk02 u7disk00.zip copy /b u7disk10 + u7disk11 + u7disk12 u7disk10.zip copy /b u7disk20 + u7disk21 u7disk20.zip If you are on a *nix system you use the cat command instead of copy /b, for example cat u7disk00 U7disk01 u7disk02 >u7disk00.zip
In that folder you can now find 3 zip files. You can now use winzip/winrar/any unarchiver to extract the files (keep folder structure in the settings) to C:\Exult\ULTIMA7. Also copy the files INSTALL.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, INSTALL.PRM to C:\Exult\ULTIMA7. Or enter the following lines on the command prompt: pkunzip -d -e u7disk00.zip C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 pkunzip -d -e u7disk10.zip C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 pkunzip -d -e u7disk20.zip C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 copy *.exe C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 copy install.prm C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 Installation is now finished and you can delete the folder C:\Exult\BGfloppy.
10.6. Manual installation of the SI floppy disks
If for some reason you can't use the above guides to install SI, there is also a way to install SI without using the installer.
Copy all the files of your floppy files in one folder (e.g. C:\Exult\SIfloppy). If you are using Windows open a command prompt (run -> cmd.exe) and change into this folder (enter cd C:\Exult\SIfloppy). There enter the following lines and press return after each line: copy sidisk00 sidisk00.zip copy /b sidisk10 + sidisk11 + sidisk12 + sidisk13 sidisk10.zip copy /b sidisk20 + sidisk21 + sidisk22 sidisk20.zip copy /b sidisk30 + sidisk31 sidisk30.zip copy sidisk40 sidisk40.zip If you are on a *nix system you use the cat command instead of copy /b, for example cat sidisk10 sidisk11 sidisk12 sidisk13 >sidisk10.zip
In that folder you can now find 5 zip files. You can now use winzip/winrar/any unarchiver to extract the files (keep folder structure in the settings) to C:\Exult\SERPENT. Also copy the files Also copy the files 386STEP.EXE, INSTALL.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, INSTALL.PRM to C:\Exult\SERPENT. Or enter the following lines on the command prompt: pkunzip -d -e sidisk00.zip C:\Exult\SERPENT pkunzip -d -e sidisk10.zip C:\Exult\SERPENT pkunzip -d -e sidisk20.zip C:\Exult\SERPENT pkunzip -d -e sidisk30.zip C:\Exult\SERPENT pkunzip -d -e sidisk40.zip C:\Exult\SERPENT copy *.exe C:\Exult\SERPENT copy install.prm C:\Exult\SERPENT Installation is now finished and you can delete the folder C:\Exult\SIfloppy.
10.7. Installing the CD-ROM versions of Ultima VII
There are a couple of CD-ROM versions of Ultima VII. Most of these come with the add-ons pre-installed so with these you don't have to bother with installing the floppy disk version of the add-ons. To our knowledge the following CD-ROM versions exist:
* EA Compilation This includes BG and a couple of other games (Savage Empire, Ultima Underworld and other non-Ultima games). Unfortunately BG does not have the add-on FoV included. From the CD just copy the folder Ultima7 to C:\Exult.
* Ultima Collection From the CD just copy the folders Serpent and Ultima7 to C:\Exult. Don't bother with the Ultima Collection installer. Both games come with the add-ons included.
* The Complete Ultima VII (EA presents CD-ROM Classics) On this CD-ROM the games are zipped in Serpent.zip and Ultima7.zip. Unzip serpent.zip to C:\Exult\SERPENT and unzip Ultima7.zip to C:\Exult\ULTIMA7. Both games come with the add-ons included.
10.8. Fixing permissions of Ultima Collection on *nix systems
If you are following the above guide and copied the games from the Ultima Collection CD you might run into a permissions problem on *nix systems, including Mac OS X. You need to set group permissions to read and write.
On OS X select both game folders, bring up info, go to Ownership and Permissions, expand details, change Access under Group from read only to read and write, then click Apply.
10.9. Using the version for Windows from GOG.com
Since November 2011 you can buy Ultima 7 from GOG. Unfortunately GOG only offers a Windows installer that you can't easily circumvent, which makes it a challenge for users that use a different OS than Windows.
Right now the only way to get at the game files is to run the installer on Windows (or in WINE if you are not a Windows user). After the installation you will find the game files in C:\GOG Games\Ultima VII - Complete\Ultima7 and C:\GOG Games\Ultima VII - Complete\Serpent.
After installation you can just run our installer and when asked where the games are installed enter or browse to the above paths.
10.10. Using the version for OS X from GOG.com
Since January 2013 GOG also offers a download for Mac OS X. It's a disk image (dmg) that you can open in Mac OS X' Finder by double clicking it. You will only see one application named "Ultima 7 The Complete Edition". When you start that application you can play both games through a modified version of DOSBox for Mac OS X. If you want to make Exult automatically find the games from this download, you will need to copy the game files from this application to your hard drive. To do this follow the next few steps.
Open Terminal.app found in the Utilities subfolder of your Applications folder and enter the following commands: sudo mkdir -p "/Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate" sudo mkdir -p "/Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle" sudo cp -p -R "/Volumes/Ultima 7/Ultima 7 The Complete Edition.app/Contents/Resources/Ultima 7 The Complete Edition.boxer/C.harddisk/U7/ultima7/STATIC" "/Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate" sudo cp -p -R "/Volumes/Ultima 7/Ultima 7 The Complete Edition.app/Contents/Resources/Ultima 7 The Complete Edition.boxer/C.harddisk/U7/serpent/STATIC" "/Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle" Because we need elevated rights the commands are using sudo and will ask for your password and you will need to do this with an administrator account. If you don't have that, please ask your administrator to do this for you. Sometimes GOG changes the disk image and thus the path may have changed. If you get a "file not found" error, try downloading the newest disk image and mounting that. If it still doesn't work visit our forum and tell us.
If you are on a *nix system you can access this disk image with the following two commands: dmg2img ultima_7_the_complete_edition_1.0.0.6.dmg sudo kpartx -a ultima_7_the_complete_edition_1.0.0.6.img When you are done, close the partition with sudo kpartx -d ultima_7_the_complete_edition_1.0.0.6.img You might need to have HFS support enabled on your system.
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11. Credits and Contact
11.1. Thanks
* The people of SourceForge without whom this project would not be where it is today.
* The paper by Gary Thompson on the structure of the U7 data files was crucial to the early development of Exult.
* Work by Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Schonberg, and Wouter Dijkslag made the "usecode" interpreter possible.
* Olivier Marcoux's technical document was also crucial in understanding some data files.
* Thanks also go to the person who wrote u7items.txt and the contributor of the "avatar.ttf" font.
* Aurelien Marchand (Artaxerxes) for his extensive guide for the Zaurus.
11.2. Contacting us
You can contact the Exult team and/or get more information from: http://exult.sourceforge.net/ or http://sourceforge.net/projects/exult/
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12. Changes to the Documentation
12.1. - 14 April 2016
* Removed Zaurus guide.
* Removed mentions of MacOS or replaced with OS X if applicable.
* 3.2. MIDI Music BeOS MIDI driver is no more.
* 3.10. Installation of the digital wave sound effects Zaurus mention deleted.
* 6.1. ShortcutBar for one or double click actions Gump closing Disk and healing Feed buttons.
12.2. - 17 March 2016
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg ShortcutBar cfg settings.
* 6. ShortcutBar, Notebook and Screenshots added ShortcutBar documentation
* 7.6. Misc Options ShortcutBar options added.
* 9.2. Installing Exult on your iPhone/iPad changed a bit.
12.3. - 13 March 2016
* 1.1. Exult Version GIT instead of SVN.
* 6.3. The automatic Notebook point at GIT instead of SVN.
12.4. - 19 March 2015
* 2.11. Error Log moved.
* 9. iOS Guide added.
* 1.1. moved.
12.5. - 09 May 2014
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added coremidi_device setting.
* 3.2. MIDI Music added coremidi_device setting.
* 3.5. OS X CoreMidi device ID added to explain the coremidi_device setting.
12.6. - 19 December 2013
* 10.10. Using the version for OS X from GOG.com paths in the disk image changed.
12.7. - 21 November 2013
* 10.9. Using the version for Windows from GOG.com default installation path changed.
12.8. - 11 February 2013
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg FluidSynth soundfont stack added.
* 2.7. Path-Settings for Mac OS X deleting exult.cfg might help.
* 3.2. MIDI Music FluidSynth soundfont stack added.
* 10.10. Using the version for OS X from GOG.com added.
12.9. - 15 January 2013
* 5.2. Keyboard commands orb of the moons keyboard command.
12.10. - 01 January 2013
* 3.2. MIDI Music timidity.cfg needs to be in ~/.exult on Linux systems.
* 5.1. Movement and 5.2. Keyboard commands walk and run keys were switched.
12.11. - 16 December 2012
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg wrong height for windowed default.
* 2.10. Command line options added --reset-video and --mapnum and sorted it a bit.
* 4.4. Scaler xBR scalers added.
* deleted "Making Digital Sound work on Mac OS X" since Exult works fine on all supported OS X versions.
12.12. - 14 November 2012
* 1.1. Exult Version it's for the SVN of Exult.
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added autonotes options.
* 6.2. Using the Notebook saved when saved game and when cheating you see the coordinates.
* 6.3. The automatic Notebook Autonotes are bundled and can be toggled.
* 7.6. Misc Options Autonotes option added.
12.13. - 28 October 2012
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added right click pathfind, fixed the text backgrounds and some other small fixes.
* 5.1. Movement righht click pathfinding can be single or double.
* 7.5. Gameplay Options same as above and the paperdolls option needs SI installed.
* 10.9. Using the version for Windows from GOG.com added.
12.14. - 01 December 2011
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added alternate_drop setting.
* 2.7. Path-Settings for Mac OS X explained difference between the Library folders and how to access ~/Library on Lion.
* 4.4. Scaler added HQ4x.
* 5.1. Movement added the new way of dropping a whole stack of items without splitting.
* 7.6. Misc Options Alternate drag'n'drop added.
12.15. - 16 March 2011
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added coreaudio_soundfont setting.
* 3.2. MIDI Music as above.
12.16. - 19 February 2011
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg stereo/mono is switched by yes/no, facestats needed the setting for left status bars.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects split off the installation part.
* 3.8. All-in-One Audio Data pack and installers added.
* 3.9. Installation of the digital music packs moved below the all-in-one pack.
* 3.10. Installation of the digital wave sound effects added and moved below the all-in-one pack.
* 5.3. Cheat keys Alt-V for create objects is not only for OS X.
12.17. - 24 January 2011
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg there is no extra border setting for windows mode settings.
* 2.10. Command line options fixed copy/paste error and added more explanations.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects switching sfx works right away, removed note.
* 7.6. Misc Options more information on the charmed combat options and on mouse wheel scroll.
12.18. - 23 January 2011
* 12. Changes to the Documentation moved to the bottom.
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg new options for combat and windowed video settings and several other settings added.
* 2.10. Command line options added portable option.
* 4.1. Resolution Video settings can be set for either fullscreen or windows mode.
* 5.3. Cheat keys Cmd-V added for insert shape.
* 7. Exult Setup and Game Menu renamed since Exult Setup and Game menu share the same gump.
* 7.1. Access to the Exult Setup and Game menu same and some explanation.
* 7.2. Load/Save Game only available in the Game menu.
* 7.4. Audio Options You cannot choose the SFX pack in the Exult setup.
* 7.5. Gameplay Options reordered.
* 7.6. Misc Options formerly named Combat Options but now added non combat options to it.
* 7.7. Quit only in the Game menu.
12.19. - 13 October 2010
* 1.1. Exult Version new official version.
* 4.4. Scaler OpenGL is only available in snapshots.
* 5.3. Cheat keys Alt+KP+/- no longer works.
* 5.4. Map Editing keys only with a snapshot.
* 6.2. Using the Notebook added.
* 6.3. The automatic Notebook added.
* 6.4. Screenshots added.
12.20. - 30 August 2010
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added the new config options for video.
* 4.1. Resolution rewrote some more with Colourless' latest changes.
* 4.2. Fill modes added.
* 7.3. Video Options more changes to the video gump.
12.21. - 25 August 2010
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg added the new config options for video and audio.
* 4.1. Resolution rewrote a bit to explain the new rendering.
* 4.3. Higher resolution is cheating added.
* 7.3. Video Options added new game res setting.
* 7.4. Audio Options forgot the speech option.
12.22. - 15 August 2010
* 3.2. MIDI Music Fluidsynth support is not compiled into the snapshots, also MT32 is supported on OS X.
* 3.4. Windows MIDI Mapper the log files are now where exult.cfg is saved to not necessarily where exult.exe is.
* 2.11. Error Log also about location of log files.
* 10.5. Manual installation of the BG floppy disks some *nix command.
* 10.6. Manual installation of the SI floppy disks some *nix command.
12.23. - 28 April 2010
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg audio options for sample rate and stereo added.
12.24. - 11 March 2010
* 2.7. Path-Settings for Mac OS X we changed the default paths for OS X once more.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects the SFX pack can now be chosen in the Game Menu.
* 7.4. Audio Options added new SFX pack option and updated screenshot.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound EffectsExult finds and uses the SFX pack automatically and defaults to MT32 SFX.
12.25. - 10 March 2010
* 2.4. Path-Settings I've split this up for all the different OS'.
* added Path-Settings chapters for the most common OS with examples.
* 3.2. MIDI Music CoreMIDI driver added.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound EffectsExult finds and uses the SFX pack automatically and defaults to MT32 SFX.
* 8.5. Where to find the savegames of modded games added this so savegames of modded games can be found.
* 2.11. Error Log added where to find the error log on OS X.
12.26. - 08 March 2010
* 1.2. What is Exult? fixed typo in Jakob Schonberg's name.
* 2.2. Location of exult.cfg needs its own chapter now.
* 2.4. Path-Settings needed a lot of changes because of the LOCAL_APPDATA changes.
* 3.2. MIDI Music the MT32 option will no longer crash Exult on OS X.
* 4.4. Scaler OpenGl scaler is not considered stable.
* 8.4. Adapting the location of Mods and Patches be aware of the LOCAL_APPDATA changes.
* 1.1. is probably not needed for newer versions of OS X.
12.27. - 16 July 2009
* 3.2. MIDI Music MT32 device type is not supported on Mac OS X.
12.28. - 03 June 2009
* Spell checked the whole documentation.
* 3.2. MIDI Music slightly rewrote the FluidSynth section and explained fakemt32 option a bit better.
12.29. - 20 May 2009
* 3.6. Digital Music mentioned two issues with it.
* 3.9. Installation of the digital music packs cleaned up.
* 3.7. Digital Wave Sound Effects some more information.
12.30. - 19 May 2009
* 2. Configurations coloured tags to differentiate between manual and in game settings.
* 2.4. Path-SettingsExult and Exult Studio don't trust exult.cfg.
* 2.9. Advanced Configuration: Using both the original and the Add-OnsExult and Exult Studio don't trust exult.cfg.
* 2.10. Command line options some more information on '--buildmap' and '--mod'.
* 3.13. Linux and Audio mentioned different, configurable ports.
* 5.4. Map Editing keys got their own help screen now.
* 8. Mods and Patches added.
12.31. - 18 May 2009
* 1.1. Exult Version this docs are for the SVN version.
* 2.1. Installation the Windows installer asks for BG/SI location.
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg now up to date with SVN.
* 2.4. Path-Settings again recommend the Windows installer.
* 2.9. Advanced Configuration: Using both the original and the Add-Ons added.
* 2.10. Command line options now up to date with SVN.
* 3.2. MIDI Music split from the general music part.
* removed TiMidity chapter, since the cfg issue is explained in 3.2. MIDI Music.
* 4.4. Scaler updated.
* 5.2. Keyboard commands updated.
* 5.3. Cheat keys updated.
* 5.4. Map Editing keys needed their own chapter.
* 7.3. Video Options updated.
* 7.4. Audio Options updated, also updated the screenshot.
* 7.5. Gameplay Options updated, also updated the screenshot.
12.32. - 28 April 2009
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg tried to explain data_path a bit more.
* 3.11. Speech can also be toggled via the in-game menu.
* 10.7. Installing the CD-ROM versions of Ultima VII added EA Compilation to the list.
12.33. - 21 October 2007
* 1.1. added.
* 10.8. Fixing permissions of Ultima Collection on *nix systems added.
12.34. - 08 April 2006
* 2.1. Installation needed some polishing.
* 2.4. Path-Settings synched the path settings with the new Installation section.
* 10. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult might help some people.
12.35. - 14 March 2005
* 1. Newest ROM instructions updated.
12.36. - 14 August 2004
* 2.1. Installation on Windows you can use Notepad to edit exult.cfg.
12.37. - 23 May 2004
* 1.1. Exult Version I'm confident that the new Version will be 1.2.
* 1.1. we shouldn't call our data files shared files..
12.38. - 11 February 2004
* A lot of clean up and small changes, too numerous to list.
* 2.4. Path-Settings fixed some outdated instructions.
* 3.9. Installation of the digital music packs added as the instructions in the music-pack readme.txt are no longer valid.
* 5.1. Movement fixed up a bit.
* 5.2. Keyboard commands fixed up a bit as well.
* 1. added screenshots showing the Game menu gumps and removed "Quit to Menu".
* 11.1. Thanks time to thank Sourceforge as well.
12.39. - 12 December 2003
* 2.3. Settings in exult.cfg fixed bad path settings and updated audio settings.
* 2.4. Path-Settings moved stuff over to next point.
* 1.1. added to give some explanation for Static/Gamedat.
* 3.1. Music updated with 'recent' audio changes.
* 7.4. Audio Options updated with 'recent' audio changes.